Multi-lingual improvements are Finished

More UI Changes

If you navigate the latest Drupal 8 alpha, you'll see that more work has gone into cleaning up and simplifying the interface.

There are very few major changes, but lots of small usability improvements. One of my favorites is the new block screen. If you're familiar with WordPress, this is similar to the Widgets screen, but in reverse.

All of the available blocks are on the right-hand side and can be placed into regions on the left-hand side.

Overlay and PHP Module Are Removed

Two of the most controversial modules in Drupal 7 have been removed.

Overlay placed all admin screens in pop-up box. This would often break and wasn't mobile-friendly. It's fair to say that most developers disabled this module.

PHP allows users to write PHP code directly into the Drupal admin area. This could be a very dangerous feature in the wrong hands.

http://drupalreleasedate.com/chart/samples is a good way to track how close Drupal 8 is getting to release. It shows you how many issues are left to be solved before a release is possible. At the moment, the chart clearly shows why people think that a release is getting further away, rather than closer:

Previous State of Drupal 8 Posts

This is our 8th update in the State of Drupal 8 series. Here are the previous posts. Many give detailed explanations of the new features in Drupal 8: